School Laws of Oklahoma

Chapter 12 - Safety and Security
Article IV: Safety

Section 1043. Fire Drills. (63 O.S. § 176)

A. All public schools shall have a minimum of two fire drills per semester. The first fire drill shall be conducted within the first fifteen (15) days of each semester. The second fire drill must occur after the first thirty (30) days of the semester. All students and teachers at the public schools shall participate.

B. It shall be the duty of the principal, under the direction of the superintendent of the school district to formulate procedures for the orderly evacuation of buildings upon the sounding of a distinctive audible signal designated as the fire alarm signal.

C. Each public school district shall document each fire drill in writing by public school site. The records for each fire drill shall be preserved for at least three (3) years and made available to the State Fire Marshal or the Marshal’s agent upon request.

Section 1044. Smoke Detectors. (74 O.S. § 324.11a)

A. Any person, partnership, corporation, organization, the state, or city, town, county, or other subdivision of this state, owning a building or structure used as a hospital, church, theater, hotel, motel, apartment house, rooming house, dormitory, rest home, nursing home, day nursery, convalescent home, auditorium, or child care institution, existing or constructed in the State of Oklahoma, shall install in such building or structure a smoke detector or detectors in accordance with the nationally recognized codes, standards, or practices adopted by the State Fire Marshal Commission to safeguard life and property from the hazards of smoke and fire.

B. For the purpose of this section, the term smoke detector means a device which is:

1. Designed to detect visible or invisible products of combustion;

2. Designed with an alarm audible to the rooms it serves;

3. Powered by either battery, alternating current, or other power source; and

4. Tested and listed for use as a smoke detector by a recognized testing laboratory.

C. Any person, partnership, corporation, state, municipality, county, or other subdivision of this state who is a lessor of a residential rental property shall explain to the lessee or tenant the method of testing the smoke detector to ensure that it is in working order. The responsibility for checking a smoke detector to find out whether such detector is in working order is with the tenant or lessee leasing or renting a one- or two-family dwelling, including an apartment in each apartment house, and not with the person, partnership, corporation, state, municipality, county, or other subdivision of this state who is a lessor of the residential rental property to the lessee or tenant.

D. Beginning November 1, 1997, all new construction or remodeling of residential dwelling which require a building permit shall include the installment of smoke detectors or the electrical wiring necessary for the installment of electrical smoke detectors.

E. Any person who violates any provision of subsection A of this section or any person who tampers with, removes, destroys, disconnects or removes power from any installed smoke detector, except in the course of inspection, maintenance or replacement of the detector, upon conviction, is guilty of a misdemeanor and may be fined not less than Fifty Dollars ($50.00) nor more than One Hundred Dollars ($100.00).

F. Nothing in this section shall be construed to allow any political subdivision in this state to enact laws imposing upon owners of any dwelling described in subsection A of this section a greater duty with regard to the installation, testing, repair and replacement of smoke detectors than is required by this section.

G. The State Fire Marshal Commission shall prescribe, adopt, and promulgate the rules necessary to effectuate the provisions of this section which shall include a practical time table for compliance with the provisions of this act.

H. Municipalities may enact ordinances in order to enforce the rules of the State Fire Marshall Commission as provided by this section.

Section 1045. Safe Workplace and Safety Training of Employees. (40 O.S. § 403)

A. Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees, commensurate with the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.

B. No person shall discharge, discriminate or take adverse personnel action against any employee because such employee has filed any complaint, or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this act, or has testified or is about to testify in any such proceeding, or because of the exercise by such employee on behalf of himself or herself or others of any right affected by this act.

C. Within forty-eight (48) hours after the occurrence of an employment accident which is fatal to one or more employees or which results in hospitalization of five or more employees, the employer of any employees so injured or killed shall report the accident in writing to the Oklahoma City office of the Oklahoma Department of Labor, in a manner prescribed by the Department. The Commissioner of Labor may require such additional reports as he deems necessary, including the official death certificate from the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

D. No rule or standard promulgated under this act shall, or shall be deemed to, establish legal standards of conduct or legal duties, the violation of which standards or duties would constitute negligence or gross negligence in any civil proceeding.

E. Every employer having twenty-five (25) or more full- or part-time employees shall:

1. Designate an employee who shall coordinate all safety programs of the employer;

2. Provide safety classes to each type or class of employee no less than quarterly, except that public schools shall only be required to provide safety classes or instruction to their employees during the school year. Provided further, public school employees who are certified personnel and are in compliance with federal OSHA occupational safety and health standards shall be exempt from such safety classes or instruction and shall not be included in the computation of the number of employees set forth in subsection E of this section for determining the requirement of such safety classes or instruction; and

3. Cooperate with the Department of Labor including allowing any announced inspection of the premises for the purpose of determining compliance with this subsection.

The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to any hospital which is subject to the rules of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), as set forth in 42 CFR Parts 405, 412, 416, 417, 440, 441, 456, 482 and 489; Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Conditions of Participation for Hospitals, Final Regulations.

Note: School districts are subject to the Oklahoma Occupational Health and Safety Standards Act. The complete act can be found at 40 O.S. §401, et seq.

Sec. 1983 is not a federal statutory remedy that sufficiently protects the Oklahoma policy goal of reporting unsafe or unhealthy conditions in public buildings. County employee could bring wrongful discharge action against commissioners for “whistleblower” claim. Vasek v. Board of County Commissioners, 2008 OK 35

Section 1045.1. Information Regarding Forestry and Forest Fires. (2 O.S. § 1301-311)

A. It shall be the duty of all forest rangers to distribute in all of the public schools and high schools of the county in which they are serving all the books, periodicals, and other literature that may, from time to time, be sent out to the rangers by the state and federal forestry agencies dealing with forest conservation, development, protection, and management.

B. It shall be the duty of the various rangers under the direction of the Director, and the duty of the teachers of the various schools, both public schools and high schools, to post at some conspicuous place in the various classrooms of the school buildings the appropriate bulletins and posters as may be sent out from the forestry agencies for that purpose; and the teachers and rangers may prepare lectures or talks to be made to the pupils of the various schools on the subject of forest fires, their origin and their destructive effect on the plant life and tree life of the forests of the state, the development and scientific management of the forests of the state, and may be prepared to give practical instruction to their pupils as often as they may find it possible to do so.

Section 1045.2. Identification Cards, School. (12 O.S. § 1550.42)

A. The following entities may create, publish or otherwise manufacture an identification document, identification card, or identification certificate and may possess an engraved plate or other such device for the printing of such identification; provided, the name of the issuing entity shall be clearly printed upon the face of the identification:

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4. Any public school or state or private educational institution, as defined by Sections 1-106, 21-101 or 3102 of Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes, to identify the bearer as an administrator, faculty member, student or employee; Such documents (D) * * * is only valid for use on the campus or facility of that educational institution and includes a statement of such restricted validity clearly and conspicuously printed upon the face of the identification document.

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